STVM students spend spring break in Russia
A group of students from St.
Vincent-St. Mary High School, shown at far and near
left, enjoy the sights of St. Petersburg in Russia.
Photos
courtesy of Bill O’Neil
By Kathleen Folkerth
DOWNTOWN AKRON — A spring break trip to Russia for 14 students from St. Vincent-St. Mary (STVM) High School showed the teenagers that their counterparts half a world away aren’t really that different.
“I was surprised how similar it was to the United States,” said Chelsea Abraham, of Akron, who noted that the young people they saw in St. Petersburg and Moscow dress like Americans and listen to the same kind of music.
Others noted that the former Soviet Union features some of the fast-food comforts of home, such as Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Sbarro and Baskin-Robbins.
The country has changed a lot, said STVM Russian language teacher Bill O’Neil, who has visited the country at least 27 times since 1974.
According to O’Neil, many of the students in the four-year-old Russian language program at the school jumped at the chance to take the 10-day trip to Russia. The students traveled with a group from Kenston Local Schools in Geauga County, where O’Neil formerly taught Russian. They spent half the trip in St. Petersburg and the other half in Moscow.
West Akron resident Eleanor Sovacool was among the students who took the trip.
“I really like speaking Russian and I thought it would be a good opportunity, since I’d never been there before,” she said.
She added she found the country
to be “better than I expected,” noting that
she was impressed with the architecture in St. Petersburg.
While on the trip, the Akron
students visited a school that teaches English and met
with some of the students there.
“We talked about the things
we like to do and our differences,” said Ryan
McCargar, of Fairlawn.
He added that the students there
wear a uniform to school, which they attend for six
days a week. He also noted that the students choose
an area of study they want to pursue, such as science
or languages.
One of the other similarities
the group found was that most of the people they encountered
knew some English.
“Everyone there knew how
to speak English, so it was pretty easy,” Sovacool
said.
They did get to practice the
Russian they’ve been learning, though, McNeil
said.
“Everyone perfected how
to say please and thank you,” he said.
Their skills also helped them with
reading signs at the subway, the students said.
Maryann Bertel, of Stow, said
the trip made the students aware of some things they
take for granted here.
“It makes you appreciate
the things you do have, like trash cans and drinking
fountains,” she said. O’Neil said drinking
fountains are not commonly available because the water
is not safe to drink. The students noted that public
trash receptacles were at a minimum, but the streets
were free of litter.
They also said that with the
exception of one village, they saw no homeless people.
O’Neil, who said STVM is
one of just a handful of schools in the state offering
Russian as a language, added he plans to lead another
student trip in two years. Several of the students who
went this year would like to go again, they said.
And the trip encouraged many to
keep their studies up.
“It made me want to get
into Russian more,” said McCargar.
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